Polish Artificial Heart - new coatings, technology, diagnostics

Since 1991, the Foundation for Cardiac Surgery Development in Zabrze has been implementing research on the artificial heart. In 1995, an artificial ventricle, POLVAD, was implanted to a patient, and in 1998, the prototype of a clinical controller, POLPDU-401,was created. A further development of the studies on an implantable artificial heart requires an integrated approach and an application of advanced methods of materials sciences in order to develop new materials suitable for the contact with blood, as well as to apply a multilateral biomedical diagnostics in hydrodynamic conditions. The estimation of the cell–material interaction plays an important role in the biomaterial design. An analysis of the influence of the carbon content in titanium nitride on the biological and biophysical properties of biomaterial coatings was studied. The cell-material reactions were considered in dynamic and static conditions. Three groups of materials were under examinations – titanium nitride (TiN), as well as titanium carbonitride with a low and high carbon content – of which the best properties were observed for TiN. We found a strong influence of the stoichiometry of TiN (atomic ratio of Ti/N) on the biocompatibility. A non-stoichiometric TiN could have a negative influence on the surrounding tissue.